Speaking to BBC arts editor Will Gompertz, Sir David said that most people believe black Britain began with the Windrush generation but it actually started much earlier.

The Windrush generation refers to those people who moved to the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971.

Records suggest that the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603 saw the beginning of Britain’s first black community, with black people in Britain as far back as the Roman empire.

The museum that Sir David is proposing would aim to make generations of black children feel like they have a place in the nation’s future.

He said: “It is really amazingly important for the representation of people in the sort of cultural tropes of the nation.”

Sir David, who found it difficult to get commissions at the beginning of his career, started out designing spaces for old art school friends before coming to public attention with the Idea Store library in east London.

He originally regarded architecture as an “insider game” which he was not part of.